Proof theory is one of the ‘four pillars’ of mathematical logic, and is of fundamental interest to mathematicians, computer scientists, philosophers and linguists alike. It serves as the foundation for many other endeavours in logic and has also been useful in realising the interplay between logic and other areas of mathematics, not least via the theory of computation.

This course will introduce students with little-to-no background in logic to the world of proof theory from a computational perspective. The overall aim is to leave the student with an appreciation of how proof theory can be exploited to obtain interesting properties of logics, and how it relates to computation. Moreover this course should suffice to prepare a student for more advanced topics in logic and proof theory.